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Suppose you are once again strolling on that deserted beach and again, on cue, the genie reappears. This time he is offering you some mice from a lineage that he has bred for hundreds or more generations under germ-free conditions. Would you expect to find any genetic changes in these mice? If so, what might they be?
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Do you mean genetic diversity among the mice? or changes over the hundreds of generations? At minimum, I think there would be small to large changes or rearrangements due to transposon activity, as well as random base changes.
Elio replies: Yes, we meant genetic diversity. The underlying purpose of the question is: what would be selected for under germ-free conditions?
Posted by: Moselio Schaechter | April 11, 2014 at 07:36 AM